Job Roles

Before we started filming we split the job roles according to our members preferences and abilities.

Producer:
The producer prepares and supervises the making of a film before finally distributing a movie. They are either employed by a film studio or they're independent, they also work closely with directors and other production staff on the shoot.
Sekemi Olunloyo was made the producer because even though it was the group effort she is organized and she was best at assisting everyone and leading them in the right direction.

Director:
The director is the person who directs the making of a film; They generally control the film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualize the script while leading the technical crew and actors in order to fulfil the final film.
Gabriella Whybrow was chosen to be director because out of the whole group overall she was the only one who had the groups final opening completely visualized. She also drew up the final storyboard and we thought she would be perfect for this job role.

Camera:
The role of the camera operator is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintaining camera angles throughout various given shots.
Halimat Dada was chosen to be the camera operator because she had the most extensive knowledge on filming because she did GCSE media studies so she's done this before and we also felt that she would be the best to capture the right moments at the right angles.

Lighting:
This is the person who controls all artificial lighting which we need on our set , they also make sure that the lighting goes with each scene. They make sure it's not too high key or low key and that it's just right.
Gabriella Whybrow was chosen for this role because she is well associated with cameras and is used to getting the lighting ready various personal/school associated projects which she has done in the past.

Editing:
This is the person responsible for putting together recorded raw material into the final product which will be suitable for viewers. This is a key role post production and this determines how good the movie will eventually look.
Jordan Ogungbo was chosen for this because he too has a set of skills solely for editing as is the best out of the whole group. He has also done this in the past for personal/school related projects.

Mise- En-Scene in our two minute film opening.

BBFC - Insight Classification

Shotlist

Storyboard

Script

Film Ideas, Group Pitch.

In our pitch we discussed ideas for our Thriller/Suspense opening scene with our group. (See below post for ideas.)

The target audience for our film is males and females over 35, yet we have decided that for our unique selling point of the film we will decrease the amount of graphic violence which is typical of the thriller genre, and opt for a more teenager friendly film. Our film is going to be set in one of the actors houses', as her house has a low lighted cellar in which we can film the death of the girl.

The main question we were asked was on a camera angle, the one specified was a 360 degree spin when the scene goes to the girls bedroom. We were asked whether or not it would be better to use a series of close up shots to show the girls getting ready instead of the camera spinning around, as a group we still chose to do a 360 spin so the scene is more clear. (As explained by Jordan.)

The overall feedback was that Idea 2 would be the best to carry out, one of the reasons for this is that the first one was to similar to the film Seven, whereas Idea 2 was more original.

The changes we will make due to the feedback of the viewers will be to use a Dolly for the camera when doing the 360 degree turn in the girls room, this will make sure we achieve a steady shot.
But we can't use Emily because she's unavailable but we've started looking for an alternative.

Target Audience Member Profile

For our target demographic member, we have chosen a teacher which goes to our school Mr Simon Porter. He was brought up in working class family and he's very proud of that, but in the present would be considered of the professional class now because of his education (Degrees in English, Philosophy and also Business Management) and his job as an English teacher and deputy head. He is passionate about social justice, education, freedom , equality, the environment and is also obsessed with music and loves film.

He is also appropriate for our demographic because he is an over 35 male. I had to basically interview him over email because he's a busy man and wasn't always available when I was, so I asked him about the film genres he like, specific films, what music he likes, brands and what he does in his spare time. I'm using this profile to find the perfect demographic person likes and wants.

Music: Mr Porter has said that music is a category which has too many too name, but if push came to shove he would cut it down to Radiohead, RZA, Tricky, Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, The XX, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Joni Mitchell, The Specials, The Smiths, Manic Street Preachers, Sly and The Family Stone, Prince (80-86) Curtis Mayfield, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Stones (60s 70s), Hendrix and Miles Davies.
This is a mixture of American and British bands/singers and they seem to be all associated with alternative rock and indie genre of music, and sometimes this type of music sets the mood for thrillers even though its not very upbeat music it can still be a convention associated with the thriller/suspense genre.
Films: Once again when it came to listing movies he found a bit difficult only mentioning a few and he came up with the following Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Michael Clayton, Aliens, Before Sunrise (and sequels), Collateral, Heat, Ronin, North by North West, The Birds, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Untouchables, Raging Bull, The Insider, Annie Hall and Breakfast at Tiffany's.
This is a mixture of movies from drama and suspense genre which means that Mr Porter helps people to understand our demographic and when asked why he prefers these genres he said it was because it keeps him on the edge of his seat and guessing what happens next.

Brands: He is against the whole notion of branding but mostly prefer Naomi Klein when it comes to brands, he also detests logos. However, he is a Coca Cola addict which can also classify as a brand because brands don't necessarily have to be clothing.

As we continued the interview we discovered that in his spare time he enjoys watching TV shows such as Breaking Bad, The Wire, etc.; he's not really into magazines. but in his spare time he enjoys being a dad, going to the cinema and going to gigs and due to this, we decided that the best place for the opening scene to be advertised will be on adverts after kids programs because he spends a lot of time watching them with his daughter and the worst place of use to advertise it will be in a magazine because he said he isn't really into magazines.

Film Opening Ideas

1^st film opening idea

A flash-forward of a death of a girl, who will be isolated and in a very dark room, covered in blood from a wound in the neck. The close up shot will zoom out from the room and the building the party is in really quickly (gives the impression someone is backtracking out the house) then fade out and fade back in to a girls bedroom.

The camera will do a 360 degree spin around the room to establish where the girls are, the shot will show four girls getting ready to go to a party one of them will be the girl that is shown to be dead in the flash-forward. The camera will then focus on Emily who looks anxious and upset by something (wide eyed).  There will then be a short bit of dialogue asking Emily what is wrong and that there’s no need to worry because the night is going to be one to remember. This is forbidding of what could go wrong.  The scene then blacks out as they are walking out the house.

2^nd film opening idea

2 detectives one is a rookie(less-experienced) the second one is about to retire and is solving his last mystery with the rookie. For the opening it opens up into a police station and both detectives are at their desks waiting for a specific call which leaves an element of enigma as to why the detectives are waiting for a call, then the scene switches and there’s a banner talking about deaths. 3 girl’s dead so far, all killed and a spiral with their blood left next to them, then the bodies are shown which gives an element of ellipsis then the scene cuts off there.

But we didn’t choose to do this opening because we have neither the resources, time nor money to carry this idea out.

Target Audience Interviews

Firstly we spoke Miss Greenwood as she is in our primary target audience of females over 35. She said she likes Thrillers such as Captain Phillips, which is coincidently her favourite film. She enjoys watching Thrillers because they're exciting, full of action and that they sometimes have twists in their storylines. After interviewing Miss Greenwood we have decided that our film must be full of suspense to keep the viewer interested.

 

Secondly we spoke to Mr Porter who is in our secondary target audience demographic of males over 35. He expressed how much he loves to watch Thrillers because of the suspense involved and how it's a form of escapism for a couple of hours. His favourite director is Alfred Hitchcock, who's films are known to be dramatic and thrilling. He tells us how much he likes North By Northwest and Michael Clayton which is a film that stars George Clooney. He describes how powerful the film is.

 

Lastly we spoke to Mr Johnson who was also in our secondary audience, he said how much he enjoys to watch James Bond, because of how the plot always varies and how you never know what the ending is going to be. He said that he likes Thrillers because they include a range of characters. We have learnt from this interview that if we did a full length film the ending should be a surprise and shock to the audience.

 

We think that Captain Phillips may have been so popular with the Miss Greenwood( over 35 female demographic) because it's an action thriller which most of the times ends up having a good ending which what she may have enjoyed about the movie so much; it also seems to be very exciting and full of action which is exactly what people should look forward to when watching a thriller.

 

Mr Porter also mentioned how Alfred Hitchcock is favourite director which isn't surprising because Hitchcock is one of the most iconic directors of all time and has also been part of some the biggest thrillers of all time i.e.  Vertigo(1958), Psycho(1960), North by Northwest(1959), etc. We also watched the opening of Vertigo which was filled with enigma and we pick some elements out of Hitchcock's films for our film opening.

Box Office Data and Statistics

UK Film Council Statistics

Thriller/ Suspense Genre Conventions

Genre and Group

My group for my two minute film opening includes, Sekemi, Halimat and Jordan; we decided to be in a group as we all have varied interests and different ideas, this will give us more of a general view on whats good and whats not. Also because Jordan is in the group we have a mix of sexes, so the ideas will hopefully be less biased towards a particular sex. The genre we have decided to do will be a thriller, we choose this as we want to get away from the conventions of a romance or comedy. We also decided to stay away from the typical genre of horror which a lot of openings seem to be based on.